Guide Contest - Winners!
I went through a little more than 400 submissions for that contest and it REALLY wasn't easy to pick winners. The original plan was to give away 5 prizes but I had absolutely no way to do that without feeling extremely guilty for tons of other guides and I bumped the amount of prizes from 5 to 20!

I would like to thank WoWTCGLoot.com again for supplying most of these prizes!

The guides will be revealed and released over the next 4 or 5 days to make sure that all the guides get some kind of attention and winners will receive their prizes shortly after.

First Prize - Peacebloom vs Ghouls Guide (by Scythen)
The first prize of the contest is a HUGE guide about ... Peacebloom vs Ghouls. I clearly didn't expect to put a guide about that quest in the first place when I started the contest but this guide turned out to be awesome, extremely well built, and extremely entertaining to read. A perfect way to finish the year!

I know this guide is huge but I really didn't want to crop it out. Congratulations to Scythen who did a truely awesome job with that guide.

One if by Zeppelin: Two if by Boat -- Traveling Azeroth

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker)

Azeroth is a large world and it's recently become much larger. There are hills to climb, deserts to explore, fjords to ford, and a vast sea separating the continents. And let’s not forget that beyond Azeroth proper there lies a whole other shattered world -- Outland. Traveling has never been more interesting, and for some, confusing. To help you with getting around, we’ve compiled a list of some of the more common ways you can see the world, meet new creatures, and (likely) be killed by them.

Mounts
Mounts come in all shapes and sizes, and each race has its own type of mount that becomes available at level 20. You’ll need to learn how to ride, of course, and then you'll need to keep your feet on the ground until level 60 when you can take to the skies -- after purchasing the flying skill and a flying mount.

Riding Skill

Available At

Requirements

Apprentice Riding

Level 20

Journeyman Riding

Level 40

Expert Riding

Level 60 (Allows for flying in Outland)

The Burning Crusade

Artisan Riding

Level 70

Master Riding

Level 80

Cold Weather Flying

Level 68 (Allows for flying in Northrend)

Wrath of the Lich King

Flight Master's License

Level 60 (Allows for flying in Azeroth)

Cataclysm

*Tip - Hitchhiking: Some mounts are designed to carry more than one person, so you can always try to catch a ride with a friend.

Flight Masters
For a little pocket change, you can get a lift from a Flight Master. You’ll need to find the flight paths (as indicated by the green exclamation (!) point) and learn the route before you can fly to many destinations, but they should be easy to find as you explore. It’s important to note that there are flight paths that can be used by Alliance only, Horde only, and by both. These are noted on your map as red for Horde, blue for Alliance, and gold for Neutral (both factions can use.)

Boats
Boats are free to use, and while the crew may look like they have loyalties to the Horde or Alliance (depending on the harbor they make their home), they will never attack their passengers. The residents of the harbor, however, may have other things in mind. Most boats dock in Alliance ports and can be an inconvenient means of transport for the Horde, though Booty Bay in the Eastern Kingdoms runs a neutral port.

Zeppelins
These flying contraptions may look like floating death traps, but they use the best in goblin technology... so yes, they'e probably death traps. You can’t beat free airfare, though, which is surprising given the goblins' greedy nature. Much like the boats, zeppelins are faction-neutral, but perhaps more difficult to use for the Alliance.

Portals
Portals are magical constructs that allow travel from one location to another.

Mage Portals: They may cost you -- either because the mage is charging a fee or you’re generously leaving a tip. These portals are created by a mage and allow party members to travel through them. When traveling alone, mages can teleport themselves without opening a portal.

NPC Portals: NPCs can sometimes help you get where you need to go, though their transportation methods are generally attached to a quest or progression path.

Static Portals: Many portals offer travel to a fixed destination. These can be found in a variety of locations.

Orgrimmar

The Western Earthshrine - Offers portals to Hyjal, Vashj’ir, Deepholm, Uldum, and Twilight Highlands after you've completed the quests that guide you to these new Cataclysm zones.

Tol Barad - Found near the Western Earthshrine, you must be level 85 to enter this world PvP zone.

Blasted Lands - Found in the Valley of Spirits, you must be level 58 to use this portal. It delivers you safely to an outpost just outside The Dark Portal.

Stormwind

Blasted Lands - Found in the Wizard’s Sanctum, you must be level 58 to use this portal. It delivers you safely to an outpost just outside The Dark Portal.

The Eastern Earthshrine - Offers portals to Hyjal, Vashj’ir, Deepholm, Uldum, and Twilight Highlands after you've completed the quests that guide you to these new Cataclysm zones.

Tol Barad- Found near the Eastern Earthshrine, you must be level 85 to enter this world PvP zone.

Outland Portals

The Stair of Destiny: Offers portals to Orgrimmar and Stormwind on either side of the Dark Portal.

Neutral Portals

Shattrath: Within the Terrace of Light, a portal transports those of the appropriate level to the Isle of Quel'Danas.

Dalaran: Within the Violet Citadel, a portal is available for travelers heading to the Caverns of Time to defend Azeroth’s timeline from the machinations of the Infinite Dragonflight.

Within the Sunreaver’s Sanctuary (Horde) and the Silver Enclave (Alliance), portals are available for Wintergrasp, Strand of the Ancients, Warsong Gulch, Alterac Valley, Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm, and Isle of Conquest. (Note that queuing for Battlegrounds can be done anywhere from within the User Interface.)

Summoning
When there’s no portal available, you can ask your friends for a helping hand. Players can be summoned by using a meeting stone outside of a dungeon (level requirements need to be met) or by utilizing the services of a warlock.

Special
Many additional means of transportation around the world become accessible via quests, special items, or NPCs, but there are two specialized methods that we just couldn’t leave out.

Rocketway Exchange: The goblins have arrived, and with them, a little extra goblin ingenuity. You can find the largest of these Rocketways in Azshara.

Deeprun Tram: Running between Ironforge and Stormwind, players can take this underground train for free and easy transit between the two cities.

I like it how the last 3 prizes are the best by far. I wonder if people really care about mounts and pets that much that they'd prefer them to a curse premium account, that actually has some value and is quite costly if you buy it the regular way.

Congratz to Scythen, I can see why he won. Although some people might not find it useful or say there are too many pictures, you can tell he took his time. He took the time to take that many screen shots, he took his time to crop every single one of them, make banners and whatamacallits that separate things. :P (Forgive me, I just woke up. Was a little too excited to see if I won. SPOILER: I didn't, sadface.) Once you get over the fact that you didn't win, I think you can really appreciate that its a good and adorable guide. I'm really interested to see the other winners.

To those of you that didn't win: I know you spent alot of time on your guides. (I know I did.) Its really disappointing to see that you didn't win. However, the Guides submission forum is going to be opened up after all the winning guides have been featured on the front page. If you made a good guide, it will be put to good use by the public. I personally would like to go back and make mine look nicer and work on it some more so that it is more useful.

damn... busted my ass off so much on my guide, had been fine tuning it for weeks, then when i heard about this contest i really re-formated it and added a dozen pics. pretty upsetting to lose on such hard work =\ woulda been an awesome way to wake up today on my birthday and see my name on the list... lol....

The travel guide is excellent too, except for one thing. The Orgrimarr portal to the Blasted lands is now in the Cleft of Shadow as of the shattering.
They also missed out the fact that there's a blasted lands portal in every major city next to the mage/portal trainers, and that mages can portal to one minor town per faction, either Theramore (Alliance) or Stonard (Horde).

I placed 14th. And after seeing first place, i realize why i didn't win. Im really eager to see the other guides both above and below me. I also wish this contest was longer, because having to rush on the last day due to Christmas week with family/friends made it difficult to put together a quality guide. I also wish we could have had better formatting for the guides other than the forum BBC code we were locked into using (after you posted 10 times on a new account). All in all it was fun, had a blast, but i hope if there is another one it is better organized.

Grats to the winners and GL next time to those that didn't do as well as they wanted.